If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted for several weeks, I make my apologies. And here are my 48 excuses (give or take a couple who may not be in the picture) … Yes, classes have resumed. Now I’m back to the 24-7 life of a private boarding school teacher. Below are our girls in special dress, just before the new student dinner with faculty on the evening of move-in day, near the start of term.
I’m also back to being head of house besides, which mostly means, as I tell people who ask, that I’m a glorified janitor and secretary for the dorm. For instance, Sissy came to ask me during second half of study hours this evening for help with a window that was sticking. The temperature’s been dropping every night now into the 40s — good sleeping weather, and it keeps the late summer bugs down. But the heat doesn’t go on for a few weeks yet.
And Ginger, our head house prefect, told me the dorm juice and soda machine is broken, so I have to track down which office on campus to call tomorrow to request repairs from an outside contractor. When I finally got down to making some notes for this post, the dorm was meeting over Klondike bars and discussing taking up a collection to replace the overused and now defunct dorm microwave.
I like this year’s new girls — some very bright kids, and a healthy dose of self-discipline and perspective among many. Kate found me coming up the stairs. She had a deadline of this evening for the student newspaper, and needed to expand her article length, as well as complete a lot of other homework, and she was crying from the stress. Yet she didn’t lose herself in tears, but wiped them away and was able to answer my questions. Half an hour late she had a better draft, had found a couple of my suggestions helpful, and had crafted a solid opinion piece on the experience of moving from SoCal casual (southern California, for you non-U.S. types and non-Buffy the Vampire Slayer aficionados) to New England prep. These are 14- and 15-year-olds. I couldn’t have done at that age what many of them do.
But the recent event, still bubbling and glowing happily inside me, is OBOD’s East Coast Gathering, which just ended this morning … [Continued in the next post]
A Druid Way 